Many known techniques for upgrading portions of an original system can cause an undesirable level of downtime within the original system. For example, using many of these known techniques, all (or nearly all) of the databases of an original system may be unavailable to users while the databases are being upgraded. Also, the upgrading of the databases may necessarily be implemented during a downtime of the entire original system rending the entire original system unavailable to users. The duration and impact of the downtime of the original system and/or unavailability of the databases targeted for upgrade can be aggravated by the unavailability of resources (e.g., storage resources, processing resources) to be used to implement the upgrade process. Thus, a need exists for systems, methods, and apparatus to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.